Chaos reigns supreme at Bangalore airport

Chaos reigns supreme at Bangalore airport

The Hindu

Crumbling infrastructure adds to the woes of passengers arriving and departing

# The airport handles about 180 flights and caters to nearly 27,000 passengers daily
# Passengers of private airlines have only a single gate to reach their flight
# Expansion work likely to be completed in 20 days

BANGALORE: Half an hour wait for security clearance, chaotic departure and arrival terminals, inadequate seating for passengers hit by delayed flights... this is the picture of chaos at the city's HAL Airport.

Ordeal

It has become a ritualistic ordeal for the harried passengers caught in an airport now reeling under acute demands of an explosive air traffic growth.

On Sunday, the returning Haj pilgrims were allowed into the security check-in, and this caused confusion for outbound passengers. "The Haj passengers were being handled in the domestic departure and arrival sides. That must have caused the problem. We are handling too many passengers and the terminals are so small," Regional Director the Airports Authority of India (AAI) Krishnamurthy told The Hindu.

Passengers of Jet Airways, Air Sahara, Air Deccan, Spice Jet and Go Air have only a single gate to reach their flight: Departure Gate II. But that is only part of the problem.

Mr. Krishnamurthy hopes the completion of the expansion work will ease the congestion to an extent. "We are doing our best. With the expansion, eight additional counters will be added to the domestic terminal. The counters on the first floor of the international departure terminal will be brought to the ground floor. The rush in the security hold area in both domestic and departure terminals will be reduced," he says.

The Bangalore International Airport project at Devanahalli is still years away from completion. But until that becomes a reality, passengers will have to depend on an airport that currently handles about six million passengers annually.

With flights to Frankfurt, Bangkok, Sharjah, Singapore and other international destinations, the airport is always on the global map; but for all the wrong reasons. Consider the list of complaints by a frequent traveller: "The ticketing counters are outside the terminal, so come rain or shine, you'll have to stand in a queue and wait for your turn. I mostly got a place to sit at the waiting lounge before checking in. But rush hour means standing. And it is hot and humid. The check-in is always crowded," he says.

Shock

Arriving at 6 a.m., a passenger was shocked to see the drive-up area and foot access to the building taken up by dozens of trucks and hundreds of bags of freight. All this was taking place right under the sign restricting vehicles to alighting only for a maximum of 90 seconds.

Expansion work

Things could improve in future if one goes by the minor expansion work in progress. But the construction site itself has become an area of chaos and confusion. Passengers walking out of the arrival lounge are welcomed by the construction work and noise, besides the long queue of railway ticket seekers in front of the special railway counter. The AAI director stated that the work will be completed in 20 days.

Under the expansion plans of the Airports Authority of India, the check-in area for international passengers will be expanded and spruced up. The baggage holding and immigration areas will also be expanded and renovated. Also on the cards is a new air conditioning system for the departure terminal.

The airport handles about 180 flights and caters to nearly 27,000 passengers daily. Besides the State-owned Indian and Air India, a host of private airlines such as Jet Airways, Air Sahara, Air Deccan, Kingfisher and Spice Jet operate a number of flights from here.

Among the international flights are those run by Lufthansa, SriLankan Airlines, Singapore Airlines, British Airways and Air France.